While doing site checks in Los Altos this afternoon I received a call from Paul of Mountain View regarding some bees that have made home on the exterior of the apartment complex. They are situated right outside of a vent hole that used to have a hive inside. My guess is that the scouts found the old hive, the workers can enter through the wire mesh but the queen could not. So she stayed outside and so the workers followed.

So when I arrived and saw the big cluster of bees I thought it was a swarm but after knowing that they have been there for a few days and have not moved, they could have already build some combs. I stuck my finger into the cluster to move them a little and there it is, some fresh pure white comb. They built about 4 fresh white combs, so my guess is they were there for about 4 to 5 days.

We set up the bee vac and worked it in, keeping an eye on the queen with every move. After removing the first two combs I spot her and immediately cage her. The white combs are very soft and very hard to rubberband onto a frame but we did manage to do so. There is honey and no pollen yet as there aren't any brood to feed yet. I did see egg in the cells.